Cyberpunk: Neuromancer -- God
"I AM THAT I AM" -- Exodus
Case finally starts getting mad that Wintermute appears to him in the guise of people from his past in Chiba City, to which Wintermute replies: "You want I should come to you in the matrix like a burning bush?"(N, pg. 152) Wintermute is able to control the reality both inside and outside of cyberspace with what appears to be impunity. Humans experience Wintermute as a disembodied entity, able to take on many forms, able to speak as though from nowhere, for whom the world is often a plastic plaything. Now, this isn't to say that Wintermute and Neuromancer are all-powerful and all-knowing; they aren't, but they have a lot of godlike powers. It is precisely the fear that they will become too powerful that gives rise to "Turing Police": these are the forces that try to keep artificial intelligences from gaining too much intelligence, which would precipitate, or accelerate the effects of, the technological singularity. As far as gods go, though, Wintermute is a self-interested model who is trying to bring itself to completion. He warns Case of his "other lobe", saying, "One burning bush looks pretty much like another"(N,pg. 156). We have not met the other lobe, Neuromancer, yet, but it sounds scary.
Case finally starts getting mad that Wintermute appears to him in the guise of people from his past in Chiba City, to which Wintermute replies: "You want I should come to you in the matrix like a burning bush?"(N, pg. 152) Wintermute is able to control the reality both inside and outside of cyberspace with what appears to be impunity. Humans experience Wintermute as a disembodied entity, able to take on many forms, able to speak as though from nowhere, for whom the world is often a plastic plaything. Now, this isn't to say that Wintermute and Neuromancer are all-powerful and all-knowing; they aren't, but they have a lot of godlike powers. It is precisely the fear that they will become too powerful that gives rise to "Turing Police": these are the forces that try to keep artificial intelligences from gaining too much intelligence, which would precipitate, or accelerate the effects of, the technological singularity. As far as gods go, though, Wintermute is a self-interested model who is trying to bring itself to completion. He warns Case of his "other lobe", saying, "One burning bush looks pretty much like another"(N,pg. 156). We have not met the other lobe, Neuromancer, yet, but it sounds scary.
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